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"It’s always a possibility."
"Don't invite trouble. This isn't your fault. It's the fault of the people who are, you know, trying to murder-murder me."
I had to laugh at that."Murder-murder?"
"Yes, murder-murder. It fits."
"No. No, it does not fit,” I said, still chuckling. How did she do it? In the midst of utter chaos, still manage to make me laugh?
"Whatever. Obviously, some things are going on that maybe you haven't told me."
"Let's just go meet the king and queen and figure out how to keep you safe,” I said, trying to change the subject.
She shook her head and perched on the edge of the table with crossed arms. "Talk to me, Atticus."
I sighed. The truth will set you free. "Okay. I think my father has been trying to have you killed."
"That doesn't make any sense,” she said, her voice full of surprise. “He doesn't even know me."
"It doesn't matter. He knows what you mean to me. If he kills you…" I couldn't even finish the thought.
She, unfortunately, finished it for me. "It's the fastest way to get to you."
"Something like that." I licked my lips. “He gave me a choice that day. The day I walked away. Marry you or save my mother. It was the worst kind of choice. I knew how strong you were. That you would survive. My mother…” I sucked in a deep beath before continuing. “But what I didn’t count on, was how I would fare. You were right before, when you said, I acted like you were supposed to forgive me. To forget.” I walked to her and took her hands. “I didn’t ask. I’m sorry. I should have begged for your forgiveness. I’m a little late, but the idea that something might have happened to you before I asked you properly to forgive me, didn’t sit right. Please know that I made the only choice I could. I never wanted to hurt you.”
Her dark eyes searched mine. “Thank you for that.”
“I should have said it before.”
She shook her head. “I have a question.”
“Ask me anything.”
“It’s about our original contract. Your father, what does he gain if you don’t marry me?”
The answer made my gut churn. “When I made the deal with your father, I wanted you. I didn’t have a name for it and I couldn’t’ see my feelings correctly. I was obsessed with you. It was that simple. Dad and I have been fighting over the Pendragon CEO seat and control of the board for a long time. It’s a fight over shares. When my grandfather died, he left a clause in his will about Pendragon shares.”
“But I thought he was forced to step down,” she asked.
“He was. He still has his own shares he can vote. And when he got married, my mother was given shares as well. Since she’s been mentally incapacitated, he’s voted her shares. He voted mine too until I turned twenty-five when I was given a quarter of my grandfather’s voting shares. That’s when the trouble started. Me having my own mind diluted his power.”
“So he’s trying to kill you?”
“No. If I die before my thirtieth birthday and I’m not married, since my mother is incapacitated, the remainder of my grandfather’s shares get dispersed. He doesn’t want that. If I make it to thirty, but don’t get married, he gets the remainder of the shares. Which means he will get to vote his shares, my mother’s, and the remainder of my grandfather’s shares.”
“And if you do get married before thirty?”
“My wife gets a quarter of my shares. And I get the remaining shares from my grandfather.”
“Damn.”
““It’s a throwaway line covered in enough legalese to make your eyes cross. If I get married by my thirtieth birthday, I get the bulk of my grandfather’s shares. Micah found the clause when we were looking to oust him as CEO a couple of years ago. I’d never been told it was in there. I’ve been looking for loopholes ever since so I didn’t have to get married. There is a morality clause with the board. If a board member should be convicted of a crime, then their shares get stripped. In my mother’s case, he would get her shares. I thought when he was sued for sexual harassment, something more nefarious would have come out, but so far nothing.”
Gwen worked her bottom lip as she watched me. “How did you protect your mother, Atticus?”
In for a penny, in for a pound. “There was a murder years ago near the Hamptons. My father claims to have evidence that my mother committed the murder.”
She stared at me for a long moment. “Your mother?”
